Bronisław Markiewicz

Blessed Bronisław Markiewicz was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Congregation of Saint Michael the Archangel, known as the Michaelites. He was born on 13 July 1842 in Pruchnik, in Galicia under Austrian rule, one of eleven children of Jan Markiewicz, who served as mayor of the town, and Marianna Gryziecka. After secondary studies in Przemyśl he entered the diocesan seminary there and was ordained priest on 15 September 1867. He spent the following years in parish ministry in the Diocese of Przemyśl and as a professor of pastoral theology at the seminary, already showing a particular concern for the poor, for temperance, and for the Christian education of young people.

In 1885, seeking a more systematic apostolate among abandoned youth, he went to Turin and entered the Salesian Society founded by Saint John Bosco, whom he came to know personally in Don Bosco’s last years. Markiewicz made his religious profession in 1887 and served in Salesian houses in Italy. In 1892 he was sent back to Galicia to begin Salesian work on Polish soil. He established himself at Miejsce Piastowe, where he opened an institute for orphaned and neglected boys that combined elementary and vocational schooling with religious formation, in the spirit of Don Bosco’s preventive system. Disagreements with Salesian superiors over the legal and financial status of the Polish foundation and over adaptations required by local conditions led to his separation from the Salesians.

In 1897 he founded a new religious institute dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel, whose members would continue the work of educating poor and neglected youth and of promoting temperance and honest labor. He also encouraged a corresponding community of women. From Miejsce Piastowe he directed the growing work, formed the first members, and published the periodical Powściągliwość i Praca (Temperance and Work), which spread his educational and social ideas. The male congregation received diocesan approval after his death and later pontifical recognition; it became known as the Congregation of Saint Michael the Archangel and expanded in Poland and in other countries, conducting schools, orphanages, and parishes.

Markiewicz died at Miejsce Piastowe on 29 January 1912. His reputation for holiness and his service to abandoned children led to the opening of a cause of beatification. Pope John Paul II declared him Venerable in 1994 after recognizing his heroic virtues. He was beatified on 19 June 2005 in Warsaw during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. His liturgical memorial is kept on 30 January. He is remembered in the Polish Church as a pioneer of youth ministry and as the founder of a congregation still dedicated to the education and pastoral care of the young and the poor.